According to an AP story at the French Yahoo website, Pope Benedict has been making fatally naïve, classically deluded, liberal-style comments about the meaning and “message” of the Muslim riots in France, namely that the riots express a “dissastisfaction” with society that society must do something about. Why can’t the Pope understand that the riots are not an expression of dissatisfaction with France, but an expression of emnity toward France, not a plea for better “integration” in France, but a scream in the face that no integration is possible?

And when will Christians understand that unless the Church stands with this civilization against its mortal enemies, the civilization and the Church will die together?

Many thanks to our VFR French expert who once again has provided us with an excellent English translation.

Benedict XVI comments again on the urban riots and calls upon France to thank her immigrant workers.

Vatican City (AP)—Benedict XVI returned on Monday to the topic of the urban riots in France that have challenged us “to take into consideration the demands of young people.”

The Pope emphasized the importance of “thanking” the immigrant workers and their descendants who have become for the most part full-fledged Frenchmen.

The sovereign pontiff received a visit on Monday morning from the new French ambassador to the Holy See, Bernard Kessedjian. He took the occasion to recall that France had recently “lived through a difficult period socially, one which brought to light the profound dissatisfaction of part of its youth.”

“Internal violence, which marks societies and which one cannot but condemn, serves nevertheless as a message, especially from the young, urging us to take their demands into consideration,” emphasized Benedict XVI.

“Your country has welcomed a large number of foreign workers and their families, who have greatly contributed to the development of your nation since the end of the Second World War,” he added. “Today it is important to thank them, and their descendants, for the economic, cultural and social wealth in which they have participated. Most of them have thus become full-fledged French citizens.”

For Benedict XVI, “the challenge today is to live by the values of equality and fraternity (…) taking care that all citizens, while respecting legitimate differences, are able to forge a genuine common culture that bears fundamental moral and spiritual values.”

“It is also important to propose to the young both an ideal of society and a personal ideal,” he added. “The final word is that your country is being called upon to take additional measures toward the integration of everyone into society. The same is true of other nations on the Continent, and this in the name of the intrinsic dignity of each person that is central in our society.” “Social peace comes about, to a great extent, at this price,” he concluded.

Benedict XVI expressed the wish that “very special” attention be paid to the “institution of marriage and family” that plays an “irreplaceable role in the education of the young.” “In order to do this, it must be assisted and sustained, so that it does not abandon its educational mission, leaving young people to their own devices,” the Pope stressed.

[See a spirited discussion about this article at Free Republic.]
Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 22, 2005 01:50 PM | Send